Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack felt like he was getting torn, folded, spun, and wrapped around himself in timespace. He was everywhere and nowhere, all the time and never, all at once. The wormhole leading to the Space Monster World was by far the roughest he’d experienced.

The pressure would have annihilated any C-Grade who tried to enter. Even weaker B-Grades would struggle. To Jack, Brock, and Starhair, while the sensation was uncomfortable, it wasn’t dangerous. Even in their injured and exhausted state.

The wormhole spat them out on a field of dry ground. They tumbled, grabbing a hold of themselves. Jack suppressed a groan as his heavily burnt skin rubbed against hard dirt. His focus was immediately whisked away to the fact that he couldn’t breathe. It took him some time to adjust. As he lay face-up on the ground, gazing at a crimson sky, he felt as if the weight of the entire world was placed on his chest.

“Is everyone okay?” he managed to say after a while.

“I’m fine,” Brock replied.

“I’m…fine as well,” Starhair said, sounding far less confident. Jack laboriously turned his head over. Starhair once wore pristine blue robes made of the finest silk. Now, that silk had melted against his skin, and whatever blue remained was marred by a river of blood which flowed from the top of his head. Half his hair was missing—or, actually, it was more accurate to say that his scalp had been removed in those places, revealing patches of bone underneath.

“Shit,” Jack said, rushing to stand. “That looks terrible.”

“I’m fine,” Starhair repeated through gritted teeth. He ripped whatever remained of his robes and wrapped it around his head like a turban. The gruesome sight was hidden, but his pain remained.

“That’s not fine, Starhair,” Jack said. “You’re seriously injured. We got to help you.”

“I said it’s fine,” the man stubbornly replied. Jack could see the emotions whirling in his eyes—pain, despair, frustration, and a bone-deep fear. “I’m not supposed to be here,” Starhair continued, looking around. “This is the Space Monster World. I would have returned with Elder Boatman. I shouldn’t be here.”

“You are now, and we’ll make the best of it.” Jack laid a hand on his shoulder. There was an entire world around them just begging to be explored, but he prioritized ensuring that Starhair was okay. After all, he’d injured himself to save them. To save himself, actually, but Jack and Brock had still benefited from that, so letting him be would be ungrateful.

Starhair tried to say something but flinched in pain. He groaned. “I… I severed half my cultivation,” he said as if only just realizing it. His eyes grew cloudy. “Fuck. I shouldn’t have done that. I got scared. Fuck. Fuck.”

“Hey man, it’s gonna be alright,” Jack said. “Take deep breaths. You’re alive, and you’re young. You’ll regain it all.”

“Yeah, in centuries!” Starhair laughed. “We’re going into war and I’m a cripple! In a hostile hidden world! Oh, what an idiot I am. What a cowardly fool!”

Jack turned to Brock, raising a brow. The brorilla was also injured, but nothing too serious. Just burns which were already regenerating and a fading, heavy exhaustion. Brock had already stood and paced over. “It’s okay, bro,” he told Starhair. “You relax for now. Turn off your mind. Let us find a safe place first, and then we’ll talk.”

Starhair nodded.

Only now, as Brock turned his gaze upward, did Jack follow.

The Space Monster World stretched endlessly all around them. They were on a barren wasteland, like the terrain at the edge of a desert—yellow, dry, infertile ground with only the occasional weed growing. Trees were few and far between. This terrain stretched as far as the eye could see—or their Dao perceptions. Jack noticed no curvature of the ground, indicating they were on some sort of flat world.

Overhead, crimson skies cast their glow. On closer inspection, they were made up of endless crimson clouds, sparking with similarly crimson lightning as if a storm was constantly underway inside them. The light was low in intensity, similar to a full-moon Earth night, but flashes of red occasionally brightened the world, giving it a dark and bloody feel. There was no rain.

Most importantly, this world was not hospitable at all. The ambient temperature was enough to boil water. The Dao density was so suffocatingly high that anyone below the D-Grade would exhaust themselves in minutes and then be crushed to the ground. Even Jack felt his powers grow weaker by at least ten times, and that was only because he was a B-Grade. His power came from his inner world. If he was still a D or C-Grade, who harnessed the ambient Dao to exercise their cultivations, he would be similar to a mortal in this place. So wild was the Dao.

He’d experienced a similar suppression before, at the Green Dragon Realm, but this one was even more intense. He suspected that anyone below the B-Grade would be unable to fly.

Jack looked around, taking stock of all these things. However, he didn’t see even one living creature.

“What do you think we should do?” he asked. “Stay here and recover? Or scout things out?”

“Staying here would be the safest,” Brock replied. “Let’s recover a little. Then we can keep going. Resting too much is un-bro-like.”

Jack laughed. “You got it, bro.” They settled down cross-legged. Starhair did too, though still wearing an expression of pain. There was nothing they could do to help him. He needed time.

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Ten minutes later, Jack and Brock’s burns had fully regenerated. Their skin was pink and healthy like a baby’s. It would have happened far faster, too, but these burns were oddly stubborn.

“I still can’t believe they sent an Archon after us. That was fucking scary,” Jack said, flexing his fingers. “I didn’t expect them to be so decisive.”

“The Immortals are robots. They lack emotions. They wouldn’t underestimate us out of arrogance,” Brock replied.

“I know. Still, well played by them… We may have survived, but our protector is gone, and we barely made it.”

“But you know what that means, right bro?” Brock smiled. “We survived the attack of an Archon. We’re strong.”

Jack smiled back. They high-fived.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jack said. “I don’t like how exposed we are. Should I ask our guide?”

“Please do, bro.”

Jack reached into his inner world. “Hey, turtle,” he said. “Are you awake?”

“I’m always awake,” Venerable Saint Thousand Shell’s voice echoed in his mind. “That was one hell of a battle, kid. Good job. Very good job.”

“Thanks. We’re in the Space Monster World now. Do you recognize this place?” Jack sent it a mental image of their surroundings. The turtle scoffed.

“What am I, an encyclopedia? The Space Monster World is so humongous that I haven’t even traveled one hundredth of it. Even if I had been through this place, I wouldn’t necessarily recognize it. It’s been a billion years. I bet all the terrain I know has changed by now. You should just go find a local and ask for information.”

“A local?” Jack frowned. “I’m a cultivator. Won’t they try to kill me?”

“Oh, man up, kid. You’re strong. No matter how powerful the space monsters, the chances of you randomly running into an A-Grade are practically zero. Just beat the shit out of whatever you find and interrogate them. I’ll translate for you.”

Jack had to admit that made sense. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“The turtle says we should just find a local and interrogate them,” he told the others, then pointed at a random direction. “Wanna go that way?”

“Lead the way, bro.”

Starhair didn’t say anything, just got up and prepared to follow them. His aura felt far weaker than normal. If Jack had to guess, his power level was now closer to a middle B-Grade than a peak one. It sucked.

He saved us, Jack thought. If there’s a way to help him, I will.

He took to the air. The other two followed. They cut through the skies like a trio of missiles, keeping their altitude low and refraining from teleports to avoid being detected.

Five minutes passed. They couldn’t easily teleport due to the Dao density, but their speed remained great. If they were in America, they would have crossed an entire state by now. In the Space Monster World, the terrain remained identical. Barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. Jack was beginning to wonder if the entire world was like this. Even his Dao perception, which spread far farther than his eyesight, was met with the exact same terrain as well.

Finally, however, he spotted something different. A pair of horses galloped through the wasteland—the first living creatures he’d seen. Of course, they were more like horses from hell than regular horses. Their manes were made of dark flames. Fiery prints were left where their hooves met the ground, their eyes were red, and their entire bodies were thickly corded with muscle. Each was seven feet tall.

Despite their intimidating exterior, the power of these animals was nothing threatening. They were at the D-Grade. Jack was about to ignore them before he realized that this was the Space Monster World—why would the locals resemble humans? These horses might well be intelligent creatures.

He led the others to turn towards the horses, overtake them instantly, and smash into the ground right in front of them. The two horses screeched to a halt and rose on their hind legs. When the dust cleared—falling faster due to the increased gravity—the horses saw Jack’s form clearly. The leading one released smoke from its nostrils and opened its mouth to reveal bloodied, flat teeth.

“OUTSIDERS!” it cried out. “DIE!”

Its voice was dark and devilish. It spoke in a strange language Jack didn’t understand—full of growls and clicks—but Venerable Saint Thousand Shell did instant translation.

The horse brought its front hooves right on Jack’s face. He raised two hands to grab them, easily stopping the horse, then raised it over his head and slammed it on the ground behind him. A crater appeared.

“Are you guys idiots?” he said in English. “We fly and do a superhero landing in your faces, and you choose to attack us? Jesus.”

The horses, of course, didn’t understand him. He suspected it wouldn’t matter anyway. The second horse lunged at him, head turned sideways and jaws opened wide to shatter his face. He punched it hard enough to send it flying. As for the first horse, after it recovered, it made the mistake of attacking Brock. The brorilla slapped it so hard that half its teeth went flying, and the entire horse spun three times around itself before landing.

“Bad bro,” he said. “Do not attack your big bros.”

The horse neighed sadly from the ground. It hadn’t received a serious injury, but it now apparently acknowledged its defeat. The other horse galloped over from where Jack had sent it flying, and the two of them sat on the ground, proudly accepting their fates.

“YOU ARE STRONGER,” the leading horse said. “KILL US.”

“What are they saying, bro?” Brock asked. “Should I bro slap them again?”

“It’s fine. They surrender,” Jack explained. “But they’re fucking weird. First they attack us without a care in the world. Then they surrender and ask for death. Like, what the fuck?”

“We should find a way to speak to them,” Brock suggested.

Jack nodded. “Hey, turtle,” he said. “Can you translate what I’m about to tell them? I’ll tell you, you tell me what sounds I need to make, and I’ll make them.”

“Only if you say my name properly.”

He sighed. “Please, Venerable Saint Thousand Shell.”

“I accept your apology,” the turtle replied triumphantly. “What do you want to tell them?”

“That I need some information, and they’d better give it to me.”